Jets grades vs. Bills in Week 6: Lots of blame to go around
Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich looks on during a game against the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium on Monday. Credit: Errol Anderson
OFFENSE: D
So let’s get this straight: Breece Hall ran for 113 yards, Garrett Wilson (107) and Allen Lazard (114) each hit triple-digits, Aaron Rodgers threw for 294, there were nine plays that gained 20 yards or more, and the Jets still only scored 20 points? Blame it on the red-zone failures: they were a pitiful 1-for-4 including a dropped would-be touchdown by Wilson and a walk-in TD run by Braelon Allen negated by a penalty. Other than the Hail Mary at the end of the half, the Jets reached the end zone just one other time. And the game, like the two losses before it, came down to them having the ball in Rodgers’ hands. This time it was down three points with about three minutes left and all their timeouts, but they never made it across midfield before Rodgers was picked off with 1:52 left.
DEFENSE: D
After getting butterflied wide open by the Bills’ running game on the first drive, allowing 56 rushing yards on the 70-yard drive, the Jets actually settled in a bit and let up a passable 93 the rest of the way. What they couldn’t seem to figure out were ways to get Josh Allen and the Buffalo offense off the field. The Bills converted 5 of 11 third-down conversions. Some of them on dazzling plays by Allen like when he ducked out of a sack for the touchdown pass to Dawson Knox that made the score 20-10, but there were some simple ones too like the 6-yard run that iced the game with just over a minute left. Will McDonald came the closest to creating a takeaway with a stripsack of Allen but the Bills recovered that and played a clean game without any turnovers.
SPECIAL TEAMS: F
Greg Zuerlein has now cost the Jets two of the last three games. He doinked a 32-yard field goal attempt off the left upright late in the third quarter and then somehow managed to rattle a 43-yard try off the left upright at the other end of the field in the fourth. This after he missed on a makeable 50-yarder at the end of the 10-9 Broncos loss the last time the Jets played at MetLife. The rest of the unit played well — Quinnen Williams even blocked an extra-point kick by the Bills — but nowhere near enough to overcome Zuerlein’s very concerning struggles.
COACHING: D
First of all, not all of those 11 penalties for 110 yards were actually penalties. Many were phantom violations that existed only in the minds of the over-officious crew handling this game. That said there were still enough legitimate fouls to besmirch Jeff Ulbrich’s debut as interim head coach and make his team look like a sloppy, undisciplined unit. Ulbrich did a nice job managing the clock at the end of the half to set up the Hail Mary touchdown pass and Todd Downing stepping in as offensive play-caller gave the Jets a few new wrinkles (as well as many more opportunities for Hall and Wilson). But in a week when seismic changes took place on the staff the differences on the field were barely ripples.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
